Ardat-Yaphren
by Ozymandeos
Summary: What if Shepard was not such a cut-and-dried character? What if she was a Subject-Zero in her own right, an experiment into biotics that truly made her one of a kind? Raised by asari on Thessia, she has her secrets. But she still joined the HSA, and the rest is history. The galaxy may be saved, but Shepard's not done yet. Full-Summary inside. Post ME-3, Pre-Skyrim.
1. Prologue: Ardat-Yephren

**Author's Note: Hmmm…another new story. This is mostly just for fun, but feedback is still appreciated. Note: this is NOT an F! Shep/F! Dragonborn story. In this case, the characters are one-and-the-same. As always, I own nothing but my (hopefully) original plot and characters**

**Most of the asari language used in this comes from Myetel's "Spirit of Redemption" series, and is used with permission (Notable exceptions include siame, which I like and which was found on the cdn wiki and 'Yaphren', which I made to mean "Of the night sky"). I highly recommend reading these, as the writing quality is better than anything I can hope to accomplish, at the moment. Her first novel, The Valkyrie, is available on the Kindle as well. **

**Anyway, the full summary is this: What if Shepard was not such a cut-and-dried character? What if she was a Subject-Zero in her own right, an experiment into biotics that truly made her one of a kind? Raised by asari on Thessia, she has her secrets. But she still joined the HSA, and the rest is history. The galaxy may be saved, but Shepard's not done yet.**

**Meanwhile, Nirn is facing trouble of its own. The Stormcloak Rebellion is gathering force and the Legion rushes to contain it while the Aldmeri Dominion stands by, ready to swoop down on the survivors. But the kel's hold on Alduin is slipping, and the bane of kings will have his vengeance. All the while, Daedra watch with curiosity as their own plans progress.**

**Shepard WILL find her siame, her one-who-is-all, even if she has to drown the world in blood. May the Nine have mercy on anyone who stands in her way.**

**Yeah…sorry for the long AN. I'll keep them down to a minimum, from now on. **

_Ardat-Yaphren: Demon of the Night Sky_

"You're joking, right?" Even with one hand trying to keep my own intestines from spilling out and the other hanging limp, probably broken, at my side, I managed to let out a short, pained laugh. "You don't really expect me to believe that, do you?"

The little bastard of an AI who had the gall to appear as a child just inclined its head and flatly stated, "I do not joke, Shepard. It is not in my programming."

I just laughed again, as much as it stung to do so. "Then you're not as smart as you'd like to think. There are always other paths, other methods. You claim that I'll destroy all synthetic life? How will it tell between VIs and AIs, or offline and inactive storage? It can't, not unless it destroys everything based off of mass effect tech. But you and your little pets?" I paused and made a noise like an explosion. "Boom."

I just blocked out its response. This thing wasn't EDI. It wasn't Legion or any of the Geth. Therefore, it wasn't a person and didn't deserve to be treated as one. Every step toward the conduit sent lances of pain screaming all across my body. I hadn't thought it possible, even as I'd died, for anything to hurt worse than what I'd been put through as a child. But this? This was either there, or extremely close to it. I couldn't give up and die, even though I felt like doing so; the galaxy still needed me.

My right arm shook and trembled, white-hot streams of fire making me grit my teeth as I tried to aim my pistol. Steadying it as best as I could, I made my peace with the galaxy. The odds of surviving this were slim-to-none; I was standing in the galaxy's biggest mass relay and I was about to make it explode, after all. Compared to my last suicide mission? This was actually mundane. No proto-reaper shooting lasers at me, just an angry AI telling me to stop. Then again, I didn't have my team with me now. I didn't even know how many of them were still alive, after all the fighting Hammer saw.

It was a good thing they weren't here though. This fate? It would be my own. I wasn't even supposed to be alive, now. Death had his skeletal fingers wrapped around my soul still. This would just set things back to right and save the galaxy in the process. I only had three regrets, as my finger started to tighten the trigger.

I wished I could have saved more people.

I wished that I'd been fast enough to save Anderson.

And I really, really wished that I'd told Morinth how much she meant to me one last time.

Then the trigger depressed, the mechanisms inside shaved off a sliver of metal, the accelerators reduced its mass to nothing and accelerated it to a fraction of the speed of light, before finally sending it flying out the barrel and into the power conduit.

There was time for one last whispered sentence as death unfolded before me, blooming like one of Thessia's scarlet als'iith flowers.

"I'm sorry, Siame. It looks like I won't be keeping my promise after all."

Then my world dissolved into red fire and weightlessness.


	2. Chapter One: Embrace Eternity

_Embrace Eternity_

As my senses gradually started to seep back into the warm, comforting blackness I'd been floating in, the first thing I became aware of was that a pair of warm hands were wandering places. I rolled over, pulling the blankets tighter as I groaned, "Not now Morinth. It's too early for this."

The hands pulled away and I curled tighter into the rough pillows. For the savior of the galaxy, twice-over and probably thrice by the time this mess was through, I was definitely childish in the mornings. Also, not a morning person in general. Couple that with my biotics? Even in the military, people willing to actually get me out of bed before eight were few and far between.

Before I could drift off again, the hands were back, this time focusing on my ass. Sighing and deciding that she wouldn't give up, I gave in and reached out my mind. What I found most definitely was NOT Morinth.

Everything from the start of the mission to retake Earth to destroying the Crucible suddenly came rushing back as my eyes snapped open, darkness already spreading across them as I latched onto the unfamiliar mind belonging to whoever was molesting me. It was…confusing, to say the least. The emotions, fading lust and rising fear, were as easy to read as a book. The thoughts were like they were in another language though, one I didn't know. Even my sleep-addled mind realized that was strange, and forcefully yanked all knowledge concerning language out of his mind. Then my own anger at what the obviously-male mind had been doing took over, and I let my power loose.

The rush was just as sweet as I remembered as his soul quailed in terror when my power overloaded his brain, everything he was fading and being absorbed into myself. He didn't even have the ability to scream. Just feeling this made it easy to believe how the ardat-yakshi became addicted to killing. It felt so good, and each death made the killer more powerful as the essence of victim, as well as some of their memories, flowed into the asari. Or, in this case, me. A curse that my creators hadn't even thought could happen, considering that even among the asari only purebloods could be ardat-yakshi, but one I wouldn't give up for the world.

The body slumped to the floor as adrenaline and endorphins flooded my system. All thoughts of sleep forgotten, I threw the blankets away and took stock of the situation. I was in some kind of rough robe with nothing on underneath. That fact made me very, very angry. The bed I'd been in seemed almost like it was hand-made. Same with the blanket and pillow. My armor and pistol were nowhere to be found, but my biotics still responded just fine. I wasn't defenseless, not by far.

The room I was in was made of stone. Rough stone, which also looked to have been put there by hand. There was one glass window, but it was pitch black outside and I couldn't see anything. A single candle, an actual wax candle, was the only source of light in the room. The door was wood, with metal bands going across it. The rest of the room was bare aside from a few wooden chairs, though there were spots that looked like furniture had been recently removed from them.

I didn't recall there being anywhere in known space that still built like this. Add to that the fact that I'd been standing in the middle of a massive relay when the crucible had blown up…things weren't looking good. And of course I'd just killed the only readily available source of information without taking anything but his language from him.

The body itself looked surprisingly human. Pale skin, dark hair, normal ears and eyes, even the right number of fingers. A bit short, but still unnervingly human. He was wearing robes quite similar to what had been put on me, and had a satchel over one shoulder. Rifling through it to see if there was anything I could use, all I found were a few glass vials with blue liquid in them, a bunch of plants, and a pouch full of gold coins. That fact alone would have told me I was nowhere in Citadel Space, or even the Terminus; nobody used actual coinage anymore, much less ones made of precious metals. That examination done, I decided it was time to leave and find answers.

The door opened easily when I tried the handle, revealing two more robed people positioned on either side of the entryway.

"Done already, Edgar? That hardly seems worth what you paid me to be left alone with…" the one on the right started, trailing off as he turned and saw me standing there, and the other guy's body on the floor inside the room. As surprising as the pointed ears and golden eyes the man had were, he'd just unwittingly admitted to being bribed into letting the now-dead man try to rape me. He didn't even get the chance to say anything as I introduced his face to a biotic punch. His head exploded in gore, and my fist cracked the wall as it hit. It was a damn good thing they taught people how to make sure they didn't break every bone in their hands by doing something like that.

The second guy, who looked much more like a normal human, had seen what I'd just done and had his jaw hanging open in astonishment. As I started to move towards him, he screamed and turned to run. He had to have been a tacit accomplice in this too, so I wasn't letting him off the hook that easily. A throw collided with his back when he was halfway a set of stairs at the end of the hallway, sending him screaming through the air until he hit the wall with a rather large thud.

Grumbling to myself about the blood that had spattered on the robe that wasn't even mine, I made sure that my barrier was up and leaned against the wall to wait. Someone had to have heard that coward's scream, so all I had to do was wait to get answers. The hallway was lined with doors, after all. Surprisingly, only one person actually seemed to have woken up. Another of the ones with pointed ears, this was a woman who took one look at this end of the hallway, threw up, and ran for the stairs. I chuckled to myself, as wrong as it was, when she tripped over the other guys body and threw up again before disappearing down the stairs. Someone obviously wasn't used to battle.

It took nearly ten minutes for a group of three people in more ornate robes to troop up the stairs, the original lady trailing behind. Two of the people looked normal-ish: a man with a long beard and another lady who wouldn't have stood out on the Citadel were it not for her robes. The third…he looked a little bit like a quarian without the suit. Five fingers and normal legs, yet dusky grey skin, eyes that seemed to glow a dark red color that was definitely not quarian, and pointed ears. The man with the beard had what looked like a biotic barrier shimmering over him, and the quarian-thing had some kind of glowing, shifting sphere in his hands.

"It took you long enough to get here," I commented offhandedly as they got closer. The words felt thick and unwieldy to my tongue, but I think I managed them fine. It was a lot more brutish than asari high-tongue, or even English. I'd hate to hear this culture's poetry.

"You're awake," the lead guy, the quarian-looking one, commented. "Now would you care to explain why you just killed an apprentice and two of our adepts after we spent a week and considerable power into bringing you back from the brink of death?"

Well, at least I hadn't actually died this time. Though death must be pretty ticked at me after last time. My response was more of a retort, "Of course, if you'd explain why you had guards outside my door that accepted a bribe to let him…" I jerked my thumb at the apprentice, "try to rape me. I fully expected to die, yet I wake up to find someone groping me in my sleep. You're lucky I only killed those three."

The man sighed and rubbed at his forehead as the lady said, "Great, just great. First a person just appears in the middle of the Hall of the Elements, bleeding out , unconscious, and nearly dead. We barely manage to pry the armor and suit off of her in time to save her life and then we spend significant college time and resources getting her back to health. Then we have to divert two people to guard her at all times while she's comatose, despite the fact that nobody wants to go near her with those glowing scars on her face, and now three of the college's members are dead because of her. She's more trouble than she's worth, Savos."

"Quiet Mirabelle. We're the ones at fault here. You'd have done the same thing if you were in her situation," the man, Savos apparently, replied. "Look, we need to talk. This is not going to go over well with the rest of the college, and I'd like to have some answers to give them when I have to explain this mess."

I shrugged. "I don't want to be here anymore than you want me to be. If you'd direct me to the nearest FTL terminal, or better yet the spaceport, I'll be out of here in a flash." I wasn't really expecting them to know what I was talking about, so the confused looks I got weren't that disappointing. "No? I didn't think so, after what I've seen so far. But I'll answer your questions, if you'll answer mine. Deal?"

"Deal. Follow us; I'd rather talk without all the blood and corpses."

Still wary, I followed them. I didn't make any aggressive moves, though I did keep my barrier up. It was only fair, since the bearded guy who hadn't said anything had his own. It was the middle of the night, so I didn't get the stares I would have otherwise. My eyes were still tinted black after all, and the scars from the Cerberus implants were still glowing orange. It would take forever for them to actually heal over, as I'd learned in the past.

The halls were rather stark, lined with crates and barrels at some points, until we came out into a circular room with a hole in the center of it. Probably the middle of a tower of some sort. We took the stairs on the edge down to the ground floor, then went out what had to be an exterior door. It was positively frigid outside, even by my standards, and lit by odd, floating orbs. I had no idea what they were, but the word 'magelight' popped into my mind when I saw them.

There was actual snow coming down, something I hadn't seen outside of combat situations or training since I'd last visited Thessia. I began to wonder if I was dreaming when I saw that there was a pool in the center of the courtyard with a beam of light shining up from it, right between a statue's outstretched arms. We walked right past it and into another tower, which opened up into a large, tall room. We bypassed the large, open area that bore a bunch of scorch marks and chips in the stone, going through a door to the side and into a stairwell. It went up to what I assumed was our final destination: a large, open room with a strange garden in the center of it.

Savos gestured to a table, obviously meaning for us to sit. We did, and he grabbed a bottle of what I assumed was some kind of expensive alcohol before joining us.

"I have a feeling this conversation will leave us all wanting a drink by the time it's done," he offered as explanation. I shrugged. He was probably right, after all. "Now, I think we should get introductions out of the way first. I'm Savos Aren, archmage of the College of Winterhold. This," he gestured to the woman who didn't seem to like me, "is Mirabelle Ervine, Master Wizard. Next to her is Tolfdir, master of Alteration and head of defensive training. And you are?"

"Shepard. Commander of the Normandy SR2, Council Spectre, Butcher of Torfan and Aratoht, ruthless bitch, siame, or marai'ha'sai depending on who you ask." I shrugged again. "I don't put much stake in titles, though, so just call me Shepard."

They obviously didn't understand any of the titles. It was only fair, I didn't get theirs aside from the idea that they either had, or believed they had, magic. Possibly biotics, though I'd seen no sign of element zero as of yet, so I doubted it. I could be in another dimension, for all I knew. Nobody knew what happened to unshielded bodies that went through a mass relay, after all.

"Ok, now that introductions are done with, we can get down to actual business. Why, and how, did you get here?"

"Honestly? I don't know. I should be dead now."

"Why?" Savos asked.

"I was standing in the middle biggest mass relay in existence and it blew up. I was prepared to die there, but instead I wake up here getting groped by one of your subordinates." The barb there was intended. After letting that happen, they owed me. "I have no idea where 'here' is, but I know it's a long way from home."

"What is a 'mass relay'?" Tolfdir asked. They were the first words I'd heard him speak. After explaining it as best as I could, he replied, "Well…I understood about every fifth word there. So, it is a machine like the dwemer built?"

"I have no idea who or what these dwemer were, or what they built, but I doubt it was anything like a mass relay."

Savos cut in there, trying to steer the conversation back to the main problem. "You don't know where you are? Where Winterhold is?"

"Nope. Never heard of it."

"Skyrim?"

"No idea."

"Tamriel? Nirn? Mundas?"

"No, no, and no." Yeah, I'd really done it this time. Morinth was going to kill me. If we ever found each other, again. "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

"Uhh…none of us are named Toto, and what in Oblivion is Kansas?"

I shook my head in response to the odd looks I was getting. "Sorry, it's a reference to something I loved as a kid. I tend to make jokes when stressed." I took a deep breath, and told the urge inside of me that was saying to kill them all to shut up before asking, "Look, I could explain things a lot better if I still had my omnitool. Can you bring me everything that was on or around me when I showed up here?"

"I had it brought here as soon as we got it off of you. I didn't know if anything you had was dangerous, and this room is the most heavily warded in the entire college." He gestured for me to stand and led me to another large table. On top of it lay my armor and a battered hunk of metal that looked like it used to be my N7 Eagle. In the condition it was in, it was likely to blow up if I tried to actually fire it.

The armor was in pretty bad shape, itself. It was amazing to see that I was still alive after being in that. I told them that.

"We're a bit surprised, ourselves. Restoration can only do so much before the magic becomes a poison in and of itself, just as with healing potions. Even with what we did, you shouldn't have pulled through, according to Colette." There was probably an unspoken question in there. Then again, I'd been told the same thing before by Chakwas, though to a lesser extent.

"Let me guess, you patched up my skin and set the bones as best you could and things just seemed to keep healing from there?" I got a nod in response. "Say what you will about Cerberus, but they sure don't skimp on their tech."

I couldn't see my omnitool anywhere on the table, though, and the slot in my right gauntlet that it usually fit in when I wore my armor was empty. "I had a device strapped onto my right arm when I came here. Where is it?"

Savos replied, "I don't recall seeing anything of the sort. Do either of you?" that last bit was directed at Tolfdir and Mirabelle. Tolfdir shook his head immediately, but my eyes narrowed when Mirabelle hesitated before doing so.

Turning so that I was directly facing her, I stepped up and into her personal space, letting some of the beast inside me onto my face for the intimidation factor as I hissed, "What did you do with it?"

"I…nothing. I've never even seen it." Another hesitation. She was lying. Ignoring the protests of the other two, I grabbed a handful of her robes and lifted her off the ground.

"I know you're lying. As I'm currently a guest of a foreign power, I'll give you the benefit of a doubt and assume that you didn't mean any harm in taking it. Make no mistake, if you don't answer me truthfully, I will make you wish that you had never been born." I wasn't shouting, I never did. Simple, cold fury underneath calm words had always gotten my point across just fine. "Do you understand?"

Her only response was a frightened nod. My eyes narrowed further when I noticed that she was trying to reach into a pocket on her robe. "That better be my omnitool you're reaching for, otherwise I might take that as a threat and respond accordingly." The hand stopped. "If you don't give me the answer I want, I WILL take it from you. And then I will kill you." It was a simple statement of fact. Still, I knew that the other two would be standing ready to try to kill me if I followed through with it. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

"Now, where is the device? My omnitool?"

"I gave it to Arniel," she gasped out, her eyes showing just how much she hated me at the moment. It was obviously a bit hard for her to breath, so I let go and she collapsed to the floor.

"There, was that so hard?" I commented rhetorically. "Now, who is this Arniel and where can I find him?"

After getting her breath back, Mirabelle glared are me and said, "He's a college researcher, specializing in peculiar and unusual magics. I took your omnitool to him to see if he could figure out where you were from or what you were. He hasn't gotten back to me with any results yet."

To be honest, it was understandable that she'd done that. However, the part that really irked me was her lying about it.

"I could ask the same questions of you, to be honest. You and Tolfdir look human enough, but Savos?" I jerked my thumb in his direction. "The only things I've seen that looked even remotely like him have been stuck in suits for three centuries."

"I, my dear, am a dunmer. But what are you? You look like a human, but not any of the breeds I've seen before. Half of the college thought you were either a Daedra or a Psijic after you just appeared in the Hall of Elements."

I sighed in frustration, leaning against the table now. "Look, this isn't getting us anywhere. I don't know what or where half of the things you're talking about are, and you probably have the same problem as I do. We should probably…" I trailed off as I realized what I'd been overlooking this entire time.

"We should probably what?" Savos asked. He and Tolfdir were much more patient than Mirabelle, it seemed. She looked like she wanted to rip my head off. And, to be honest, I couldn't blame her.

"I'm an idiot," I replied. "I've been trying to talk this out and explain it through words, when there's a much simpler method. "

"Which is?" Mirabelle rolled her eyes sarcastically. I could already tell that, if we had to spend any extended length of time near each other, one of us would end up dead. Probably her.

"Melding." At Savos's confused look, I continued, "It's an ability that I and the people that raised me have. The joining of two minds."

"That sounds…intimate." He was, understandably, reluctant. Most non-asari didn't know that there were many different levels of melding.

"It can be. In a full meld, the boundaries between individuals disappear. Only two partners that wholly and completely trust each other go that far, as it reveals every memory and experience the other person has and buries them in the subconscious of the partner. It's the most intimate thing possible, when it is done." I deliberately left out the fact that even a mild meld, anything deeper than just passing on information, really, would kill him, coming from me. "However, there are many layers and levels. What I just described is maieolo'loa'kareo, when done during physical intimacy. What I'm suggesting is maieolo'saeo, the knowing touch. It's used in teaching, as an exchange of information."

"And what exactly would this maieolo'saeo involve, exactly?" He seemed more curious now, but the other two looked a little bit unnerved.

"A very light connection between our minds. Impersonal, so that I can explain to you what happened and where I come from and you can explain about where I am. I'll leave any of your personal memories alone, if you do the same with mine." I needed allies here, I knew. Hopefully, I'd be able to get off of this backwater planet and back to Morinth soon. If not, it wouldn't do to have enemies before I even knew anything about this place. So, I was honest with him. "There are some dangers, however. To people who've never melded before, it can be a little painful. You might have a headache when we finish. And…well, there's a possibility of complications. I'm not the best at melding, and it can cause irreparable damage to someone's mind if things go wrong."

"Why on Nirn would he try it, then?" Mirabelle cut in.

"Because this allows something that would otherwise take nearly a week of explaining, and even then leave a lot of room for disbelief on both sides, to be condensed into five minutes, with no doubt as to the truth behind the information."

Savos took a minute to think about it. Then he nodded. "What kind of an archmage would I be if I didn't pursue the extension of knowledge whenever possible? I have to set a good example for the apprentices, after all."

"You'll want to be sitting down for this." I gave him a wan smile as I took my own seat.

Once we were both seated, I took a deep breath, put my hands on his shoulders, and leaned my forehead against his while whispering two words.

_"Embrace Eternity"_


	3. Chapter Two Demonstrations

_Demonstrations, Remonstrations, and Complications_

Both Savos and I gasped as I severed the meld, our minds separating as we returned to the physical world. Apparently the suddenness of it startled Mirabelle and Tolfdir, judging by how at least one chair fell over. I could already feel a headache coming on from what I'd just learned.

"Aedra, Daedra, and undead. Elves, Argonians, and Khajiit. Spells, spells, and more spells…" I trailed off with a bitter laugh, eyeing the bottle again. "How strong is that stuff?"

Savos had a similar reaction to what I'd shown him. Watching entire worlds burning as the Reapers harvested them had just as much of an effect as me having it confirmed that I was on a world with no links to the greater galaxy, no way home, and honest-to-God magic and demons. The Reapers, bad as they were, had nothing on the 'freak-out factor' this place had. His only reply was to fill two glasses, hand one to me, and say, "Not strong enough."

We clinked glasses, a common tradition it seemed, and drained them, ignoring the confused and slightly anxious looks Mirabelle and Tolfdir were giving us. I wasn't sure what the alcohol was, but the burn was good enough for me.

"Savos, what in Oblivion is going on? You never drink like that!" Mirabelle exclaimed.

Savos's normally infinite patience, as I'd learned he had during the meld, was worn thin after what he'd just seen, so his reply to her was not very polite. "I just watched entire worlds burning as things worse than Dagon himself rampaged across them, Mirabelle. If any situation calls for drinking, this is it."

I honestly knew how he was feeling, after having the same vision shoved into my head with the first prothean beacon. But even then, it hadn't been as personal, as real, as what I'd shown him. Nothing of it had been too important to me, personally, and I'd omitted the destruction of the Bahak system. But my memories were still horrifying.

"Shepard, you have my word that I'll do what I can to help you," he promised. He was sincere, that much I knew. "But for now, let's drop it. I need some time to process all of this and think, as I'm sure you do too. This world is so different from your own…" he trailed off and shook his head. "I feel sorry for you, I really do."

Neither of us would answer the questions that Tolfdir and Mirabelle kept asking as we passed the bottle back and forth until it was gone. By then, Savos was passed out on the table and I was close to doing the same. I don't remember how, but I somehow wound up back in the room I'd awoken in, though thankfully the body had been cleared away by now. I think Tolfdir was standing guard outside, but I wasn't sure.

I just know that I spent most of the night sitting up in the bed crying silent tears as it hit me how utterly unlikely it was I'd ever see Morinth again. I didn't cry normally, and definitely not for this long. It was a conditioned response from when I was a child and the researchers hadn't liked that their creation cried like any other kid would. But now, I was by myself. Nobody I knew was around to judge me. And, after having my first and only experience at romance and a happy life since I was a teenager cruelly ripped away, I just needed to do it. The last thing I remember doing before I finally fell asleep was whispering, "Aeoill'ai lan'ulle, lapea'ulle, siame'yili."

* * *

><p>"Shepard."<p>

I muttered a few krogan obscenities and tried to block out whoever was talking to me. I didn't want to move ever again.

"Not a morning person, then?" I grunted in reply. "Too bad. It's already noon, and you're requested in the Hall of the Elements. The archmage wants you to demonstrate these 'biotics' of yours to the college's senior staff."

A few minutes of grumbling and a quick trip to the archaic bathroom facilities here saw me stumble, slightly hungover, into what was apparently the main hall of one of the largest magical guilds on Nirn. As Tolfdir explained on the way in, the various master wizards and department heads would be here to watch the demonstration. If they were sufficiently impressed, Savos would have full clearance to help me find my way home, or at least determine if such a feat was possible or not. I did vaguely recall talking about a demonstration while I was drinking, so hopefully there'd be things I could actually demonstrate on.

There were a dozen people in the room when Tolfdir and I walked in, including Savos. Half a dozen pedestals were set up in the center of the room, inside the ring of columns that I'd somehow failed to notice earlier. As soon as I reached the small cluster of people, Savos began a speech.

"I'm sure that all of you remember the sudden appearance of our guest here." he inclined his head in my direction. I crossed my arms in response as he continued, "I'm pleased to announce that she has woken up, and appears to be in good health. I called you here today for her to give a demonstration of the powers her people have, so that you can better vote on a decision I will ask for later. I'll leave the rest to her."

After that, he stepped away from the pedestals. I couldn't help but notice that he was staying a fair distance from them. He had seen some of my memories as an explanation of how element zero could affect people, though, so it wasn't that unexpected.

"I'm not that good at demonstrating things, to be honest. I'm a soldier, first and foremost, and the majority of my abilities are meant for combat use against living things. I'll show you what I can, and explain it to the best of my abilities."

That incredibly awkward semi-speech over with, I reached down into myself and felt the familiar tingle of energy rushing through me as a biotic aura flared around my skin.

"This is just the energy in its raw form, before being put to use," I explained. A thought and mnemonic, consisting of clenching my fists and imagining a second skin of steel around me, caused it to collapse into a barrier. "This is a barrier. It can be summoned at will, and provides a layer of protection that stops anything, within reason, from harming the user. If it takes too much damage, it will shatter. Or…"

I paused and flung both arms out to the side, a mnemonic that one of my vanguard friends from N7 had taught me. The resulting nova dissipated before reaching the ring of wizards that had formed around me. "It can be discharged like that, which is called a nova."

"Now, the power doesn't need to be visible for most uses. However, under heavy usage, it will manifest itself." I crossed my arms in front of me again, preparing for the next part. "There's no real term for this. It's the simplest, but at the same time the hardest, skill any biotic learns. Unlike everything else, there are no mnemonics or other methods for simplifying this. It takes focus and concentration."

My eyes narrowed, darkness sliding across them from my extensive use of biotic power, and the various bottles on top of the pedestals were wrapped in the characteristic blue aura of my biotics. They spun and twirled a few times in the air, my only movements as they did so being my eyes following their paths. Then I set them down. I'd always hated normal telekinesis like that. It just didn't fit with the rest of my biotic power.

I demonstrated throws, pulls, and slams next, each one shattering a bottle. They weren't that impressed, but then again they hadn't seen that each power had just as devastating an effect on living people. They could throw fireballs too, though, so it was time to bump up my game. As such, my next demonstration would be warp.

"This next power is purely offensive in nature, though someone with very fine control can use it in other situations. Does anyone have a dagger or other metal object that they wouldn't mind having destroyed?" One of the men threw me a dagger alongside a comment about it having a worthless enchantment and some guy named Enthir cheating him again.

"Normally," I commented as a ball of what looked like swirling blue fire appeared in my hand, "this would be launched at a target like the other attacks I demonstrated." I dipped the dagger's blade down into the warp for several seconds, then pulled it out.

"Disappointed?" I called out. There were a few rumbles of agreement, until I tapped the blade against my finger and it dissolved into dust. "A warp pulls things apart at the molecular level. Most metals and other materials will dissolve to dust with sufficient exposure, though lesser exposure will leave rends in the material. When used on flesh…well, it's not pretty. I'll leave it at that."

I didn't demonstrate shockwave, singularity, stasis, or the various abilities I was still trying to learn, such as Javik's dark channel. I didn't want to appear inept by inability to do the former, and the latter were being kept in reserve. It wouldn't do to have all my eggs in one basket, and if things went south I would have an ace or two up my sleeve.

"That concludes my demonstration. If you have any questions, I'd recommend asking them now." I just couldn't stop that last sarcastic comment from slipping out. It was in my nature.

There were a few simple ones, such as if the biotics were magic. That was answered in the negative, as was the preceding question about whether nor not it used magicka. I explained that it burned a lot of energy, though, and that we had to eat more than normal people. Then came one that I wasn't entirely sure how to answer.

"And just how common are these abilities where you come from?"

I took a moment to think, deciding on what to say. "Overall, not that common. However, among the culture that I was raised in, everyone has them to some extent. All that matters is how much training they put in. But, outside of us, the abilities are rare, and the only method of acquiring them involves severely endangering both a mother and her unborn child's lives. As a result, among most races biotics only occur on accident." It didn't reveal my own secrets, and it got the point across.

"So they cannot be taught?"

"No," my swift reply seemed to disappoint a few of them, not the least among them being the destruction master Faralda, another of those altmer things. Along with explaining about the world, Savos had given me a brief rundown of the important people in the college.

I tried to work out a plan as Savos droned on with the rest of his speech, asking the people to support him in an effort to get me home, on the grounds that I'd work towards a partnership between my people and the college if I returned. I would try to do so, but even I would only advocate so much interference with a pre-spaceflight civilization, even one as strange as Nirn's.

My first order of business here would, of course, be getting my omnitool back. Without it, it would be nearly impossible for the Normandy to locate me even if they somehow found this planet. Not to mention I'd be unable to repair my armor without it. Even with it, there would be the slight challenge of being able to replicate the ceramic with things from here, and then applying it. It had been a long time since we went over this in Rio, after all.

To find the 'tool, I'd need to talk to Arniel. It would probably be polite to wait until Savos was done to bring it up, though. Then, after getting the tool, I'd see if there was anything salvageable from my armor without repairing it. After that...I had no idea. Maybe just explore the world, see things for myself and not just through Savos's memories. It would be nice to be able to walk around without getting so many looks just because of who I was. We'd see how long that lasted once I left the college, though.

Once Savos finally ended his speech, the mages all voted to help me. Hopefully, that would actually mean something. There was no guarantee that anything on Nirn, as they called this world, would be able to get me home. Still, some help was better than none. Now I could finally see about getting my omnitool back, at least.

"You are Arniel Gane, correct? Researcher of peculiar magics?"

"Yes, that would be me." The balding mage seemed to perk up when I came over. "I'm glad you're here; I was going to try to talk to you later. I've got so many questions about where you're from and how you got here. Did…" his speech got faster as he got excited. I had to hold up a hand to stop him.

"Whoa there, slow down," I told him. "I'll answer your questions later, if I have time. Now, though, you have something that doesn't belong to you. I would like it back."

"Something that doesn't…" he trailed off. Then it seemed to hit him. "Oh, you mean that strange armlet Mirabelle gave me to look at? That's yours?"

I nodded.

"Of course, of course. I wouldn't want to be thought of as a thief, now would I?" he replied, near instantly. "It's in my office."

I followed him out the door with a discrete eye roll. He seemed to be the second-best example of an absent-minded professor I'd ever seen. The best, of course, had been Mordin. Of course things couldn't be as simple as just going to get my omnitool, though. As soon as we left the main building, we ran into an altmer whose very appearance screamed politician arguing with two guards. Every instinct I had, both the ones I listened to and the ones I usually ignored unless I was with Morinth, were telling me to smash him. Or destroy him in some other creative and painful way.

Ignoring the words that were now being directed at Arniel and I, I asked the wizard, "Is he someone important?"

He blinked at the question but replied, "Yes, I think. He's the new Thalmor advisor to the archmage. Why?"

"Damn." I was deliberately acting like I child who'd just had their favorite toy taken away as I sighed, "I guess that means I can't kill him, then?"

Arniel just gave me a wide-eyed stare as Ancano stepped in front of us, his eyes practically burning with fury. "How DARE you insult me, you lowborn fool! Do you have any idea who I am?"

I met his own glare with a cold stare of my own. He faltered, taking in the orange slashes on my cheeks and the barely-restrained rage in my own gaze.

"I am no lowborn, n'weo. I am lia'kaea to two matriarchs," I hissed, slipping in and out of asari high-tongue as I spoke. "Aiellu'u'yilo aeoill'ai lana'ha pia'kao lan riaeu'ai."

I stopped, as if giving him a chance to reply. He didn't.

" You are n'aiellu'mai, Elf. Now stand aside, or diya'da'uel."

And with that I elbowed past him, possibly putting a little too much force into it so that he'd fall over, and gestured for Arniel to get moving. Once we were a fair distance from the elf, he commented, "Well, it's been a long time since I've seen someone stick it to the Thalmor like that and survive. Why? Without your own people here, surely you don't need an enemy like them."

"Need one? No. But I'd end up with one anyway. From what Savos told me, the Thalmor wouldn't go long without taking an interest in me, once people learn that I exist. Might as well just get things over with now." I shrugged. "Besides, I dislike them on principle; the Thalmor remind me of an extremist group whose selfish goals led to millions of deaths among my people."

The sheer number seemed to horrify him. "Millions? There're barely a million people in all of Skyrim! Just how big is wherever you came from?"

"Bigger than you can imagine," I told him with a sigh. The entire galaxy was probably still in flames, even if I'd actually managed to kill all of the Reapers. Even for someone like me, with my twisted moral compass and murderous nature, the amount of death was staggering. Most people, I couldn't care less about. But I wasn't completely heartless. And then there was Morinth…I was afraid that without me she'd slide back into indiscriminate killing. "Look, I don't want to talk about it. I'm stuck here for who knows how long, and thinking about this won't help me."

He held up his hands in defeat, probably having heard some of the frustration leaking into my voice. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. Anyway…that armlet of yours has quite an interesting enchantment on it. I couldn't find any way to deactivate it, or even how it was powered, and it nearly knocked me out with some kind of shock spell whenever I tried to put it on."

I frowned. "It didn't actually knock you out? I guess Garrus was right. It needs calibrated again. That thing should have been pumping out enough current to fry anyone that tried to use it." I shook my head at that. "Looks like Tali owes him fifty credits now. Back to the point, it's DNA locked to me. It's supposed to shock anyone else. And even if you'd managed to get it to turn on, you wouldn't be able to use it; you'd need haptic gloves or implants to use the interface."

The rest of the walk was spent trying to explain what haptic gloves were, which ended with me throwing my hands up in exasperation and saying I'd just show him once I had my omnitool back. He wasn't that bad of a person, overall, but it was obvious he was extremely curious about me. Well, not so much about me, like Mordin had been after he saw my blood, but more over where I was from. I could see it getting really annoying, really quickly if I had to be around him for any length of time.

Once we were in his office, which was just as cluttered with things I was afraid to touch as I'd expected, he went to his desk and started rifling through the haphazardly stacked papers. I started tapping my foot impatiently when he was still digging through the mess after a few minutes had passed.

"I might not have any plans, but I still don't want to stand here all day. Can you hurry up and find it, already?"

"I'm trying," he protested. "It was here this morning, but now it's gone."

"Great," I growled. "Just great."

"Where are you going?" he called out as I turned to leave.

"I'm going to grab my armor, leave the college, and find something to destroy," I replied. I paused in the doorway, reconsidering. "Scratch that, make it someone to destroy."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Don't expect an update next week, I have things happening that will take me away from a laptop going on then. I might have two, the week after, though. This one was a bit short, due to running out of time after a few big distractions, but the next one should be about 5k words, or more. <strong>

**Anyway, Asari translation:**

**Aeoill'ai lan'ulle, lapea'ulle, siame'yili - Alone I stand, sundered, my one-who-is-all.**

**diya'da'uel - To die + the you ending. (Take it to mean 'You will die.')**

**n'weo - Not She**

**lia'kaea - little one (child to mother)**

**Aiellu'u'yilo aeoill'ai lana'ha pia'kao lan riaeu'ai - By my word alone another world stands sundered. (Note, pia'kao is not canon to Myetel's Asari language. I needed a word meaning world, so I made it to fit the scheme.)**

**n'aiellu'mai - Basically 'Ill-spoken'. Used as an insult.**


End file.
